what if?
by kenkao.inukags
Summary: what would have happened if naruto had been trained by the hokage personally instead of be trained with team seven? what if he was actually taught, and not ignored due o his lack of sharingan? how strong would the hokage have made him? read to find out!
1. Chapter 1

_12 years a go, the demon lord kyuubi attacked the village of konoha. killing the beast was impossible for any mortal, the yodaime hokage, namikaze minato, knew this. so he did the only thing he could do, he sealed the demon into a new born baby, thus producing uzumaki naruto, the jinchuuriki of the leaves._

a young blond boy ran through the streets of konoha, ' i can't be late!' he thought desperately to himself as he weaved in and out of the villagers, ' not today!'. he was on his way to the ninja academy, and today was the day he was going to graduate and become a full fledged shinobi. finally, the academy came into view and he could see his classmates making their way inside.

''WAIT FOR ME!!'' he yelled as he ran. a couple students looked back, but just kept walking. when he finally got to his classroom, he made his way up to his usual spot, back corner. none of the students liked him very much, and most of the sensei's HATED him. althought, he didn't know why. nobody ever told him. he watched at uchiha sasuke entered the room, followed by his crowed of fan girls, led by haruno sakura and yamanaka ino.

'' back off ino PIG! sasuke's mine!'' she yelled at ino who screeched back, '' dream on forehead, why would he want you?!'' the bickering between the two girls continued until iruka walked into the room.

'' calm down everyone. as you know, today is the day that some of you will become genin.'' iruka stated. '' now, when i call you down i want you to perform the kawarimi no jutsu, and the bunshin no jutsu''

'' hai, iruka sense'' they shouted in return.

naruto had been waiting for about an hour and a half, three people left in the room. ' damn alphabetical order' he thought to himself, cursing his last name, which started with a u.

'' sasuke uchiha'' was called out as the top student in the class made his way to the front of the classroom. he performed the two jutsu flawlessly.

'' uzumaki naruto'' iruka called out, ' finally' he thought to himself as he made his way down. he looked around and did a few seals, then yelled out ''kawarimi no jutsu'' and ended up back in his original seat, his chair standing before iruka and the other sensei's. '' very good. now, let me see your bunshin. '' iruka instructed. naruto switched back with the chair and gathered his chakra. he did another seal and yelled out '' bunshin no jutsu'' and made 4 exact copies of himself.

iruka looked at naruto and smiled. '' congratulations! you graduate'' he said to the blond shinobi. '' here is your hita- ite** a/n :Japanese for the headbands they wear btw** wear it proudly, as of now you are a konoha shinobi. ''

naruto left with a smile, extremely proud of himself for finally graduating the academy.

the next day, naruto walked to the academy at a nice leisurely pace. he wore his hita-ite on his forehead, displaying it proudly for everyone to see. when he walked into the room he saw all of his classmates that had passed, only two had failed. he was making his way up to his usual spot when he was stopped by a familiar voice. '' hey naruto, you had to pass to come today'' kiba sneered at him. '' are you blind? my headband is right here'' naruto said as he continued his way up the stairs. '' it doesn't count if you stole it!'' kiba laughed back. naruto just ignored him, ' no reason to let a jerk like him ruin my day' he thought to himself.

iruka and the other teachers walked in, accompanied by none other than the sandaime hokage himself. the hokage stood in front of the class and started to talk. '' you are the best students the academy has to offer, the cream of the crop. you all tried your best and passed your tests. congratulations, you are all on the road to becoming excellent shinobi.'' he then walked back and iruka stepped forward.

'' okay class, i will now read out the teams and their jounin sensei. however, 22 of you passed, and that leaves an odd ball out. '' he continued, '' instead of upsetting the balance of the teams, our hokage has decided to take one of you on as his personal apprentice. do you wish to disclose this information now hokage-sama, or wait until later?''

'' no need to say, we all know that it's going to be my sasuke-kun, he's the greatest!'' sakura squealed. '' shut up forehead! he's not 'your sasuke-kun' '' ino screeched back. all the fan girls in the class started muttering, the occasional giggle and screech escaping their lips as they talked about sasuke.

'' i'll say it now, that way they'll pay better attention. and naruto,'' he paused looking up at the blond boy in the back of the room, '' i'm very glad you passed. '' naruto flashed a foxy grin down at the hokage, one of his favorite people. '' thanks ojii-san! '' he said.

'' ah, that's sensei naruto, no more ojii-san.'' he scolded his new student. everyone in the room gasped.

'' a...are you serious?'' he said, a look of shock evident on his face. '' out of every student here, i'm your new apprentice?!

'' is that so hard to believe? you possess all the needed qualities, you just need to hone your skill and you'll make an outstanding shinobi. here, take this,'' he said as he threw an envelope to naruto, '' you'll need some new cloths, gear, and a special weapon of your choice, the higurashi store in town should have everything you need.'' the hokage told naruto. then he turned around and as he was leaving called out one more instruction. '' be at the tower in hour, we start training today.'' everyone stared as he left.

sakura and ino turned on naruto as soon as the hokage was out of the room. '' that was mean naruto!'' sakura screeched at hims. ' man, she sounds like a banshee!' he thought to himself, wincing from the pain her voice caused his ears. '' sasuke-kun should have be the one to get trained by the hokage! not you naruto no baka!'' her and ino kept on their rant, but he blocked them out, still getting over his shock. ' wow' he thought to himself, ' trained by the hokage himself.' naruto was ecstatic. '' iruka sensei,'' he called down, catching iruka's attention just before he began to assign the rest of the genin their teams, '' yes, naruto?'' he answered. '' can i be excused, i need to get to the higurashi supplies store and the hokage tower within the hour.'' iruka thought about it for a second, but in the end decided that naruto could leave since he was on a time limit.

naruto looked into the envelope his new sensei had given to him and his heart almost stopped. ' i've never seen that much money in one place before!' he thought to himself. he made his way to the supply shot the sandaime had told him about. once inside, he gasped. the selection was enormous. every weapon from shuriken to katana's were present. there were scrolls, cloths, exploding tags, seals, and even weights for training. naruto picked up a pair of black pants and a dark blue shirt along with some other training outfits. he decided to get some training weights for his ankles and wrists along with some extra shuriken, kunai, and exploding tags. he also picked up a pair of twin kodachii that could be strapped in an 'x' shape on his back. he also got some empty scrolls that could be used to seal away objects. when he had everything he needed, he went to the front and paid for it. when he got home he changed his cloths, attached his swords to his back, and made his way to the hokage tower.

he jumped up and through the hokage's window. '' oy, sensei , i'm here!'' he said excitedly.

'' thats good, your time limit was almost up.'' the hokage replied. '' now, let me see your swords.'' he said noticing the hilts sticking out behind each of his shoulders. naruto unsheathed them and handed them over. '' nice quality, you know how to pick out a good weapon'' he said, happy with naurto's choice. '' okay. Monday's and Wednesday's will be physical training, as in strength and jutsu. Tuesday's you will study in my library, history, scrolls, knowledge on elements, and so one. Thursday's you will help me with paper work and accompany me to meetings. and on friday you will study kenjutsu with hayate and some taijutsu with gai sensei. you will have the weekends off. however, i'll give you a training regiment that i'll expect you to do every morning at this training ground, 5 am sharp, including weekends. it'll slowly become harder as you become stronger. now, lets go get started. '' he told naruto.

'' hai sensei!'' he grinned, eager to become stronger.

soon they arrived at training area number 8, right next to where sasuke and sakura's team was. naruto noticed this and immediately turned his attention away from them. it wouldn't help him become stronger to stare at his classmates. '' okay naurto'' the hokage said, '' first, i want you to run 50 laps around the training field, once you finish 100 push ups and 300 sit ups. then come back here and we'll work on some of my taijutsu tecniques, along with strengthening your kicks an punches. did you bring those weights you purchased?''

'' hai sensei, do you want me to wear them?'' naruto asked.

'' yes, put in about 15 pounds in each leg and 10 pounds in each arm to start, once you get used to that we'll add weight. eventually, we'll put seals on your ankles and arms, but not until you've maxed out on the adjustable weights and build up your chakra reserves. no go.''

naruto took off on the road to become a truely amazing shinobi. ' with the hokage's help, i know that i'll be great! ' he thought happily to himself as he took off on his laps.

his enthusiasm died rather quickly however. after about 15 laps he started to burn everywhere. hell, it was pure hell, but he pushed through it. ' no pain, no gain' he told himself over and over. when he finally finished those he started on his push-ups, which turned out to be considerably easier. then he went to the sit ups. when he finished with his exercises, he waled over to where his sensei was meditating.

'' hey sensei, i'm done... what are we gonna learn today?!'' he asked eager to begin.

'' i'm going to teach you my favorite style of taijutsu, shishi aishi. it consists of small, quick jabs that are very powerful, and once you become proficient, you'll even be able to hit opponents who possess sharingan and byakuugan. granted it's a very hard style to learn and you will have to train extra hard, but i believe in you. you didn't stop or whine once during your morning training and that shows that you have the will of fire. '' he finished explaining. naruto stared at him, awe struck.

''so, your saying that , i'll be able to beat sasuke?'' he asked, barely believing it.

'' yes naruto, you'll be able to hold your own against any uchiha, sasuke included.'' he said again.

they began the training. after training for 6 hours, he learned the basics, and with the hokage watching his every move, nearly perfected what he learned.

'' go home and rest naruto, but make sure you practice what you learned on your free time. ''

'' hai'' naruto barely squeaked,more exhausted then he had ever been. needless to say he slept like a rock that night.

he awoke completely refreshed the next morning and made his way to his training grounds around 4:50 and was surprised to see his sensei. '' sensei,'' he yelled from a little ways away, '' i thought i was meeting you and the hokage tower for studying today.'' naruto said, slightly confused.

'' well, i came here to watch your morning training, and to go over what we learned yesterday, just an over view. we'll do this everyday until you can corect your own mistakes. '' the hokage told him.

understanding his reasoning, naruto started his morning training, or morning hell, as far as naruto was concerned, they were the same thing. after an hour of running , sit ups, push ups, and light taijutsu, they headed to the hokage's office. he pulled out a scroll, did a few quick seals, and 15 scrolls containing information about the different kinds of bunshin appeared. '' naruto, tomorrow we are going to begin your jutsu training. you already know a bunshin, but you don't know how to make kage bunshin, doton bunshin or suiton bunshin. you'll also be learning blood bunshin, even thought those aren't used as much. '' he tossed the scrolls to naruto who took them and looked each one over. he decided to read about the kage bunshin no jutsu, a solid clone of one self, and the easiest of the solid clones to create. he learned some interesting facts about them. for example, the memory. the memory of every kage bunshin is transferred to the original when the kage bunshin in dispelled. '' cool, hey sensei!'' naruto said to the hokage, '' look at this!'' he said as he got up and walked it over to him. '' ah yes, that's quite a desirable trait that the kage bunshin possess. now go and finish so you can start on the others, i want you to have read all of those scrolls by the time you leave. ''

'' hai!'' naruto said as he sat himself back down. after reading the kage bunshin, he went to the doton bunshin. he found out that they could take the most hits before they were dispelled. he also learned that the suiton bunshin were the best for stealth, especially when in areas with abundant water.

the next day, he did his normal morning routine and started putting all his reading and studying to use.

'' okay naruto, do you remember what you read yesterday?'' the sandaime asked his apprentice.

'' hai sensei... what do you want me to start with?'' he asked.

'' kage bunshin. they're the most useful and practical, they also used less chakra than suiton and doton bunshins do.'' he answered naruto.

naruto gathered his chakra, did a few seals, and shouted out, '' kage bunshin no jutsu!'' and 25 shadow clones appeared. '' good naruto good, thats a lot! now, try sparring with them, they'll be good for you training. ''

so he started to spar with his kage bunshins. once they were all gone, he looked over at his sensei. '' that was cool!'' he said as he ran back over, eager to learn more. the rest of the day went something like that, only with doton bunshin and suiton bunshin, which took some time to learn because they are elemental.

the next morning was like every other morning. after he finished his warm up, he followed the hokage to the hokage tower where they spent the day doing paper work, assigning missions, and doing more paper work.

'' sensei, this paper work takes forever!'' naruto whined.

'' i know, but it's part of being hokage.'' he answered back.

a light in naruto's mind went off at that moment. ''sensei! i've got an idea!'' he said excitedly. then he did a few seals and 7 kage bunshins appeared, each taking some paper work and getting to work. the hokage looked, then smiled. '' an excellent idea my pupil'' he said happily, then followed suit with 7 kage bunshins of his own. with the paper work taken care of, naruto and the hokage were able to leave the hokage tower for a while. they ended up going to ichiraku ramen, naruto's favorite restaurant. they left when the bunshins dispelled themselves.

the next morning, after his warm-up, he met hayate, his kenjutsu teacher. '' hello hayate sensei'' he said as he walked up with a smile on his face. hayate looked down at him and said his hello's. '' can i see your kodachii?'' he asked. naruto unsheathed his swords and handed them to his sensei. ''very nice... good length... excellent for defense, and offense... nice craftsmanship.. naruto?'' he questions looking at the boy, '' did you pick these out with no help?''

'' hai sensei, they just felt right when i picked them up. not to heavy, but they felt sturdy, so i decided they'd be good.'' he answered sheepishly.

'' well you've got a good eye for swords. now. i'm going to teach you the basics today, and depending on how good you get, i might teach you a kata or two. '' he instructed. naruto managed to learn the basics of swinging, blocking, and thrusting, so hayate decided he was ready to learn a kata. '' okay naruto, this is the first kata of my style. its called the dance of blades, it's many swings in a circular motion, allowing you to take out enemies all around you rather than just one at a time. understand?''

'' hai sensei.'' naruto said.

hayate sank into a stance, feet about shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. then he demonstrated the kata slowly, then at a normal pace, then at a master's speed. naruto watched in amazement as his sensei did the kata, he really looked like he was dancing.

'' okay, you try. and i'll fix any mistakes.'' naruto sank into a stance, trying to mimic hayate. '' widen your feet a little more.. little more.. perfect. now remember how that feels.'' he said. naruto did and then started to do the first part of the kata, slowly. he did pretty well, and moved on to the second and third parts. by the end of the training session he was able to do that kata at a pace faster than normal, but not as fast as hayate. '' you were born for kenjutsu naruto, you'll go far with those swords.'' then naruto left the training ground to go to training ground number 5. when he got there he was met by maito gai and rock lee.

'' hello naruto. i'm your taijutsu sensei, call me gai sensei, and this is my star pupil, lee.''

'' gai sensei!'' lee yelled out, moved by being called his sensei's star pupil, anime style tears running down his face.

'' lee!!'' he yelled back.

'' okay naruto. i understand that our hokage has been teaching you his style of taijutsu, shishi aishi. i'm going to be teaching you the konoha ishi style, it's rock hard punches and kicks designed to knock your opponent out swiftly.'' he said. he taught him the basics of the style, quick punches and kicks. he practiced hitting and kicking the practice posts and was able to put some pretty sizable dents in them.

when he was finished he made his way back to his apartment and dove into bed. he was truly excited, because he knew that he was going to be strong.


	2. Chapter 2

2 months had gone by since naruto graduated the academy and became the hokages apprentice. he has become considerably stronger in every area. he has learned up to 9 different kata from hayate, in which he has mastered 7. he has become proficient in both the styles of taijutsu that he's been learning, gai has even begun teaching him how to open the eight gates, right how he can open three of them. his genjutsu has improved, but he' better at releasing them than executing them. his ninjutsu however, has soared. he can perform at least 3 of each element. he can do 4 doton ninjutsu: earth wall, mud slide, earth spike, and earth dragon. as well as 3 katon ninjutsu: grand fire ball, mythical fire flower, and fire dragon. he can also perform 5 suiton ninjutsu: great wave, whirlpool, water dragon, water whip, and the water prison. naruto's favorite element is wind, and he can perform 6 fuiton ninjutsu: razor wind, gust, wind blade, whirl wind, wind dragon, and dancing wind blades. electricity is his weakest element, he can only perform 3 raikiri: paralyzing thunder, lighting shock, and lightning dragon. he can create every type of bunshin, kage bunshin being his favorite. and his kawarimi no jutsu has become flawless... he can even change places with people and his shishuin no justu was perfect, he loved just disappearing and reappearing with a puff of white smoke. another talent that has been brought into the open is battle tactics. him and the hokage have put together dozens of different scenarios and used shadow clones to enact them, and naruto has been able to find at least 4 different ways to sold the same problem in a fight. needless to say, his skills have improved vastly.

'' naruto.'' the hokage said, '' there is something that you need to know... and now is the best time for me to tell you. follow me, we're not going to be training today.'' naruto followed him into his office. when they arrived, he pulled a scroll with naruto's name on it out of his desk. '' your father left this with me, it's not time for you to have it. if you have any questions, i'll be more than happy to answer you. '' with that he left the room, deciding it best to let naruto find this out alone.

_Naruto, my son, _

_ if you are reading this, it means that i was unable to defeat the kyuubi without giving my life, and your life, in return. the kyuubi attacked the village today, and the only way i could prevent the destruction of konoha was to seal it into a baby. i couldnt ask anyone else to do this, it is hard enough just thinking about what i'm going to do to your life. i am sorry i sealed the kyuubi in you, my son, but i hope that you can understand. i love you, more than anything, and i would give anything to be able to watch you grow up and become an excellent shinobi. i am sorry that i could find no other way to rid our village of this monster, but more than anything, i regret having to make you a sacrifice. i want the village to view you as a hero, but i know they will not. just know that while i am not with you, i will always be watching you, to make sure that you follow the right path, and become the shinobi i want you to become. i love you, and i'm so terribly so__rry._

_love, your father,_

_namikaze minato, the yodaime hokage._

_also, i have left you 12 of my special kunai and the instructions on how to make them along with how to perform my my greatest technique, the hirashin no jutsu. the informations and kunai are sealed into the bottom of this scroll. _

naruto stared, reading the letter over and over. 'i... my father... the yodaime hokage!? how? when?' so many questions were buzzing around his head. he snapped himself out of his daze and performed the necessary seals, then softly said '' kai'' and 12 three pronged kunai knives along with another scroll appeared on the floor beneath him. he looked the kunai over, then opened the scroll and read. ' i will master this technique' he said to himself, ' tou-san left it to me, i'll do it!'

'' sensei!'' he called through the door. as he came in, he saw naruto loking over the kunai and the scroll. '' i want to learn this jutsu as quickly as possible, if you can fit it into our training.'' he said to the hokage.

'' ah, if i didn't know better i'd say that those are the kunai your father used to execute the hirashin no jutsu, am i correct?'' he asked.

'' hai, tou-san left his for me so i could learn it... how long have you known about the kyuubi sensei?'' he asked.

'' since you were a baby and it was sealed into you. that is the reason many of the adults in the village dislike you naruto. i am truly sorry for their behavior. it is not what your father wanted.''

'' i know, tou-san said he wanted them to see me as a hero, but he knew they wouldn't. but, i'm not angry with him, and i know had i been in his position, i would have done the same. ''

'' naruto, one more thing you need to know. '' the hokage said. '' your father, had many enemies. that is why we kept your true identity hidden from you for so long. there is no, an was no, uzumaki clan in konoha. the council and i decided that, since your father was dead, we should keep your true name hidden until you were strong enough to protect yourself from his many enemies. until you become at least a chuunin, i believe you should keep your clan name a secret, namikaze naruto.''

''namikaze naruto...'' he said the name a few times, to get used to the way it felt. '' i like it, but, i will respect your wishes sensei and keep uzumaki until i feel that i am strong enough to change it, but can we still do some training today? please!'' he said with a foxy grin.

'' if you really want to, i'll be happy too. your taking this news fairly well naruto, i'm very proud of you. ''

so the two set off down to training ground number 8. while on their way, they passed training ground 7 and saw team seven practicing their taijutsu. naruto couldn't help but notice how they were going over begging sets, no where near level he had been training under recently. '' ah kakashi, how is training going?'' the hokage yelled as they walked by. kakashi waved, but didn't say much else. naruto and the hokage looked at each other, shrugged, and kept walking. when they reached their training ground, naruto took out the scrolls and the kunai, and handed them to the hokage. he read the instructions a few times, worried about how long this was going to take. ' it's quite an advanced jutsu.. i don't want him to get discouraged... got it!' he thought triumphantly, he had the perfect idea.

'' naruto, follow the instructions in this scroll as best you can, but i want you to be training with 6 kage bunshin, two kunai to each. '' he instructed naruto.

'' hai!'' naruto responded, he performed the seals, yelled ''kage bunshin no jutsu'', and started practicing.

the hokage watched naruto's progress, which was slow at first, but soon he began rapidly progressing until a pair of the kage bunshin managed to perform the technique, becoming a blur of yellow and moving 50 yards in the blink of an eye. the two clones quickly dispelled themselves, their memories transferred to the original naruto, who's eyes suddenly brightened up as he put their experience to use and threw the two kunai he had in his hands. one 25 yards away, the other 50 yards away. in a flash of yellow, he ended up 50 yards north of where he began and promptly jumped into the air in a kind of victory dance. he then picked up the two kunai, threw them towards the hokage, and ended up right in front of him.

'' i did it sensei!'' he said happily.

'' you got the basics down, now, take all 12 of the kunai and hold on to them, throwing them one right after the other in the direction you want to go. from what your father had told me, this step took him a great deal of time and a lot of practice to master. but we won't work that that today. i have something else in mind. ''

naruto looked slightly disappointed, but quickly regained his composure. '' what have ya got for me sensei?'' he asked.

'' summoning.'' he replied. '' i want you to participate in the up coming chuunin exams, since you don't have a team it'll be harder for you in a few areas of the test and i want you to be able to summon a partner.''

''SUMMONING!! OH WAY COOL!'' naruto yelled. '' i've always wanted to know how to summon...'' he thought of all the cool animals he could summon, then stopped. '' wait, sensei, am i going to be signing the same contract you have?''

'' yes naruto, you will. the apes have stood by me and i'm sure if you prove yourself, they'll stand by you as well. '' he pulled a scroll out of his scroll pouch and did a seal with his hands. '' kai'' he said as a huge seal came out of the smaller seal. '' sign your name there with your blood. sign as namikaze because that is what the creatures of the other worlds will know you by. '' he unrolled the scroll and next to the name sarutobi, naruto bit his thumb and signed his own name, namikaze naruto.

'' when summoning, '' the hokage said, '' you bite your thumb, do the required seals, and yell Kuchiyose no jutsu and the name of whoever it is you are summoning. enma is the lord of the apes, he is the hardest to summon. but in order to summon them, you will need to ask his permission. so give it a try. ''

'' hai..'' naruto gathered all the chakra he could, without running himself dry of coarse, and bit his thumb. he then went through the seals and touched his right hand to the ground. ''Kuchiyose no jutsu: Enma!'' he shouted. as soon as he said it, an ape appeared in a cloud of smoke decked out in shinobi armor.

'' h..hello enma-sama, i am namikaze naruto, i summoned you to ask your permission to be allowed to summon you and yours.''

**''well, then your the kid sarutobi wanted me to talk to. alright kid, tell me your reason for wanting to summon.''** enma asked him.

'' well, sir.. i guess the main reason is so i can protect my precious people, even if i don't have a lot of them right now, the ones i do have are important to me, and i'd give everything to keep them safe. ''

enma searched for any trace of a lie in the young boys face, but could find none. '' **you have a good heart and an honest soul. as long as you stand by your beliefs, the apes will stand by you.''** then he disappeared.

'' well done naruto, you can now summon any of the apes whenever you need them, now to the other part of the problem with your participation in the exams.''

naruto looked at him. '' what is it sensei?''

'' you need to go on at least one C rank field mission. you've done plenty of C rank missions, but they were all meetings and such. so i have arranged for you to go on a mission with team 7. kakashi will not be accompanying you, so i will put you in charge of the mission. i'll debrief you along with your other team mates, so lets go. they should be waiting for us to arrive.''

**AT THE HOKAGE TOWER**

'' i'm sorry to say that i won't be accompanying you on this mission.'' kakashi said lazily, '' and from what i believe i will be your first C rank.''

'' then who's gonna lead the squad kakashi-sensei?'' sakura asked, '' it's going to be sasuke-kun. i just know it!'' she squealed.

' why me, why did i get stuck with the fan girl?' kakashi asked himself. '' well, the hokage will pick somebody, so don't worry. i have a mission of my own though, so i need to get going. '' kakashi then disappeared into a cloud of white smoke. sasuke, sakura, and sasame waited patiently for the hokage to arrive.

'' oh sasuke-kun, your so cool!'' sakura fawned, '' you'll be the leader for sure!''

'' shut up sakura!'' sasame snapped, '' its stupid fan girls like you that give us kunoichi a bad name!''

'' shove it sasame, your just jealous because sasuke-kun thinks i'm cuter than you!''

'' i don't care about how cute i am, or how cute you are. i don't think sasuke cares much either. do you?''

'' whatever.'' sasuke said.

'' see! sasuke-kun doesnt care what you say!'' sakura yelled at her fellow kunoichi.

'' just don't talk sakura, i honestly don't care about our silly crush.'' sasame said and turned around to wait for the hokage.

just then, naruto and the hokage appeared. '' excuse my tardiness, we seemed to lose track of time during our training today. now, as you three know kakashi will not be accompanying you on your mission today. as such, i will need to assign a leader to the team. i have decid-''

'' OOH !'' sakura interrupted, '' i just knew it! you're going to make sasuke-kun the leader aren't you!'' she squealed.

''ahem.. as i was saying, i have decided that naruto will be leading this mission. he has proven to be a terrific strategist, and i trust that he will lead this mission successfully. '' he finished.

'' nani!?'' sakura screeched, '' that dobe? the only person i trust with my life is sasuke-kun, not that baka!''

'' you'll be surprised sakura-chan.'' the hokage told her, '' just listen to him and everything will be fine. now, the mission is to deliver an important document to the daimyo in the hidden mist village. it should take about a week to get there, so you should be home within three weeks. here naruto,'' he said, '' this is the document. ''

'' hai sensei'' he took the document and then took out a blank scroll and sealed the document inside. he then took another blank scroll and did a few quick seals and said, ''image copy no jutsu'' which cast a simple genjutsu on the blank scroll to make it look like the real one. then he put both scrolls in his scroll pouch. '' when do we leave?''

'' be at the gate in an hour'' he hokage replied, '' good luck.''

with that naruto performed a shishuin no jutsu and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. the other genin looked at the spot where he left, bowed, and went to their houses to get ready for the mission.

naruto grabbed his swords kunai,shuriken,exploding tags, and his extra scrolls. all the food and be supplies he would need for a month he sealed into two scrolls. one for food and one for his bedding and cloths. he finished with some time to spare, so decided to head to ichiraku's raman.

'' hey ojii-san!''

'' oh naruto! nice to see you. hey ayame, our number one customer is here!''

'' oh hello naruto -san, it's very nice to see you. ''

'' nice to see you too! could i get a bowl of your special?? i'm leaving ona mission for a few weeks and i'll miss this place.''

'' of coarse naruto'' ojii-san said. '' who are you going with?''

'' team 7, i'm taking the place of kakashi since he's on another mission. '' naruto replied.

'' you're leading the team?'' he said surprised, '' well, in light of your first mission as captain, the meal is on the house!''

'' really? yeah!'' naruto said happily as he dug into his food. after 3 bowls he realized that he needed to get to the front gate, so he said his goodbye's to ayame and her father and disappeared in a poof of smoke, only to reappear at the front gate, startling sakura. '' naruto no baka! don't scare me like that!''

'' whatever, now, does everybody have all of their supplies? kunai, shuriken, exploding tags, food, bedding, and extra cloths?'' naruto asked. they all just looked at him''.

'' well duh naruto no baka!'' sakura sneered, '' it looks like your the idiot who forgot his supplies.''

naruto pulled out two scrolls, '' no, i have everything, i just know how to pack better than you do. here,'' he said as he handed the three in front of him an empty scroll, '' put all the things you have in your bags in here, that way your stuff won't be in the way if we get attacked. '' they just stared at him. '' whats wrong? you know how to seal this right?'' naruto asked.

'' well... i don't...'' said sakura, '' but i'll ask sasuke-kun!''

naruto and sasame sweat dropped. '' you do that sakura.'' naruto replied. '' okay now, sasame, do you know how to do it?''

'' no... could you show me?'' she asked. '' yeah.'' he replied. he showed her the had seals, and she copied, sealing her supplies into a scroll and putting it in her scroll pouch. sasuke watched naruto do this, without sakura or sasame noticing, although naruto noticed, but kept it to himself. and in turn, sakura watched sasuke and they all managed to get their belongings into a scroll.

'' okay, lets head out!'' naruto said and he led his team out of the village and toward the hidden mist.


	3. Chapter 3

'' sasuke-kun!! want to help me set up camp?'' sakura fawned, '' pleeeeease!''

''no'' sasuke answered in a monotone voice, then he headed to the corner of the clearing to train. the day had been rather uneventfuland they decided to put up camp in a particularly clear area in the forest. naruto had a couple kage bunshins set up his tent while he went to practice his hirashin no jutsu. he took out the letter his father had written him and released the seal, allowing the 12 three pronged kunai and the instructions to appear. he picked up 4 of the kunai and started practicing.

'wow' sasame thought as she watched him practice, ' i've never seen anything like that before!' she decided to ask him about it. '' hey naruto taisho, '' she called out to him while he was picking up his kunai, '' what is that? i've never seen it before.''

' kuso! i didn't think they were watching.' uh, it's a jutsu my sensei taught me, the hirashin. '' he told her. ' i should pu these away for now, i don't want anyone to ask too many questions. i'll just practice my other ninjutsu' he thought to himself. so he resealed his fathers letter and tucked it back into his pouch. then he started going over his jutsu. ' i need to work on my katon. ' he thought to himself, ' and it'll really piss off sasuke. ' he started snickering.

he walked over to the center of the clearing and gathered his chakra. then he did the required seals, took a deep breath, and said, '' katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu! (grand fire ball)'' and a huge ball of fire shot from his mouth and traveled a good 10 yards before burning out. then he did some more seals and said, '' katon: mythical fire flower no jutsu'' and an array of fire balls flew out of his mouth. after that he practiced his fire dragon, which he was happy to see had grown in size since the last time he performed it.

sasuke was now absolutely furious. ' this baka isn't supposed to be better at fire techniques than me! i'm and uchiha! i'm supposed to have the best fire capabilities in the village!' before he knew it he was walked towards where naruto was practicing, sakura in toe.

after finishing with his katon ninjutsu, he decided to work on his kenjutsu, so he summoned one of the apes , goshinki, who was quite good with sword and the two were sparring. their match was just starting to get good when naruto dropped his swords and yelled, '' doton: earth wall no jutsu!'' after speeding through a few hand signs. as soon as the fire attack ended, naruto released the jutsu and picked up his swords. when he looked around he saw sasuke getting ready for a second attack.

'' katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!'' he yelled, this time naruto followed suit, speeding through the hand seals he too yelled for the grand fire ball. the two met in the center, and naruto's barely overpowered sasuke's.

'' what the hell are you doing sasuke no teme!'' naruto yelled at him, '' were you trying to burn me you ass hole!'' after he did this he told goshinki that he would summon him to finish their spar later, so he disappeared.

'' dont call sasuke a teme naruto no baka!'' sakura screeched at him, '' sasuke is way better than you! you can't call him names!''

'' shut up sakura!'' sasame yelled, '' can't you see that sasuke was being a total jerk back there? your not supposed to attack your captain!''

'' tell me,'' sasuke said angrily, '' tell me how you became so powerful? two months ago you could hardly do a bunshin, now you can do various elemental ninjutsu and you can summon! i can't even do that!'' he yelled

'' i've been working hard under my sensei's. '' naruto replied coolly, '' i've worked hard everyday,weather it be studying, taijutsu, kenjutsu, ninjutsu, or even genjutsu, i've been working harder than i ever had. instead of becoming angry at my improvement, why don't you just work harder yourself?

'' don't talk sasuke ku-'' sakura started, but was cut off.

'' stop sakura,'' naruto said, '' it's become obvious to me that you haven't improved since you left the academy. i suggest you drop your fan girl attitude and start training because a shinobi shouldn't rely on others for protection, which is exactly what will happen if you don't shape up. you're gonna get yourself killed if you don't take your job seriously. '' naruto finished.

'' i seem to remember you as being the weakest in our class naruto no baka. so you can't say anything about being weak to me. '' sakura sneered.

'' sure i can. because i'm not weak anymore, and you still are. you're going to be a liability if anyone attacks us during this mission, and we're not going to be able to protect you so you had better start training a little bit, at least practice your aim with your weapons or chakra control. '' after naruto said this he walked back to his tent, set up a few kage bunshins as guards, henge into rocks and forest animals, then went to sleep.

sakura huffed and went to her tent. ' stupid naruto. making me look bad in front of my sasuke-kun.' she thought as she drifted off to sleep. sasame decided to go practice some of her taijutsu and her aim since that was all she really had going for her.

sasuke on the other hand, went back to his tent and sat there thinking. ' how? how did that idiot get so strong?' he couldn't figure out how naruto, of all the people to be stronger than him, how could it be naruto. he fell into an uneasy sleep.

at dawn, naruto's kage bunshins dispelled themselves, which in turn woke him up. it turned out that the night had been just as uneventful as the day before. ' o'well, i guess it's better this way, it'll bring the success rate of the mission up.' he thought to himself as he got dressed. once he was fully clothed, he put his swords on his back and checked for all of his scrolls. ' good, every thing's here.' with that he left his tent, summoned some kage bunshins to put his tent away, and woke up the others. after his tent was packed, he dispelled the kage bunshins and resealed his sleeping bag.then he released the seal on his food and took out a small tea pot and some instant ramen. he did a shishuin no jutsu and got some rocks and fire wood. when he came back, he put the rocks around the wood and did a small katon jutsu, then started boiling some water. about five minuets later he began eating his breakfast of instant ramen. as soon as breakfast was over, everyone double checked their belongings and left the clearing.

as they jumped through the trees, naruto noticed something , a puddle of water. he fell back a bit and started to whisper to sasuke, '' hey teme, it hasn't rained recently, has it?''

'' no... did you notice the puddles as well?'' sasuke asked him.

'' hai, there are about 4 of them ne?'' naruto asked.

'' hai, i'll tell sasame... you tell sakura.'' sasuke said as he slowed down and fell into step with sasame. naruto sighed and sped back up. ''sakura'' he whispered, '' don't say anything okay? just be quite and act like i haven't told you anything, but we've got company, 4 enemy nin, probably at least at chuunin level.'' sakura looked over at naruto and almost yelled at him for being a baka when she noticed sasuke talking to sasame. '' what are you doing sasame no busu! sasuke doesn't want to talk to you!''

while she was yelling at sasame, she left the perfect opening for the enemy shinobi to strike. naruto saw them coming and had to push sakura out of the way. '' baka, don't let your guard down!'' he yelled at her as he stood back up.

he jumped over to sasuke and sasame, '' okay guys, this is it, time to put our team work to the test. okay. sasame, how much wire and how many exploding tags do you have?''

'' uh about 500 ft of wire and around 50 tags. why?''

'' okay, i want you to take sakura and set up some traps along the perimeter while sasuke and i keep them preoccupied... you can take 2 while i take 2 right teme?''

'' of coarse i can baka!'' sasuke shot back, '' and don't call me teme.''

'' wait, i have to work with fan girl?'' sasame whined.

'' this isn't the time for particulars. just do what i said, go!'' he yelled. she jumped over to sakura and relayed the plan and the two of them started setting up traps.

'' okay sasuke no teme, looks like it's time to put our training to the test ne?''

'' hai, lets do this!'' and the two of them jumped into the clearing where the four nin were.

naruto did a hand sign for a katon: fire dragon while as he jumped down. however, the shinobi were barely able to dodge, one got burned, but nothing too bad. as soon as naruto landed he drew his swords and sank into the stance for his most advanced kata, dance of the elemental blade. he decided to use katon, since suiton are weaker agianst it. as the two shinobi charged, he began his dance. with each stroke of his sword, red hot flames danced on the blade, cutting and burning when they came in contact with the skin. he took the two out in a rather short amount of time, his swords had simultaneously cut across the stomachs of the two enemy nin, both gutting them and burning on the inside. they fell dead with a look of surprise on their faces.

sasuke didn't have as easy a time of his two as naruto did. they seemed to be pretty used to fighting with katon ninjutsu. they were able to dodge most of his attacks, but they ended up getting caught in one of the traps sasame and sakura set up. sasuke took their surprise as a stroke of luck and threw a couple kunai with exploding tags on them at his enemies. once they exploded, he used the dirt as cover to execute another grand fire ball, the enemy shinobi had no time to dodge or block and they were burned to the point of death.

as soon as the battles ended, naruto took out another scroll sealed the four bodies into it to bring back to the village for examination. the rest of the mission was smooth, no one jumped them, no other ninja appeared. 'thats strange, when they failed i was sure they'd send out reinforcements...' once they delivered the scroll, they decided to take a look around the village. the hidden mist was very different from konoha, but they still liked it. naruto bought a couple suiton scrolls with some rather advanced jutsu on them. '' one can never have too many scrolls'' he said happily as he walked away with three suiton scrolls and one katon scroll.

the next day the four of them left the hidden mist to return to konoha. on the way back, naruto managed to get some time to himself to practice the hirashin, and he improved a lot. he figured out how to use more than 2 kunai at a time and was up to using 6 when he heard someone coming. he turned around and saw sasame, she was practicing her taijutsu, which she was pretty good at. he walked a little ways away from her so she wouldn't be able to see him practicing. ' tou-san said that he was able to throw 50 or more of these things and take out entire armies... how did he do that without getting confused on which kunai to go to?' he realized that sometimes his body would go back to one of the kunai he had thrown behind him while he was thinking about going forward. ' i guess i'll have to talk to sensei about this...' then he resealed his fathers scroll and went back to camp.

they arrived back home later that week. naruto made his report of a mission success to his sensei, and also gave him the scroll containing the bodies of the shinobi he and sasuke had killed. '' thank you naruto, you'll make an excellent chuunin... i'm confident you'll pass these tests.'' naruto was very excited, the chuunin exams were due to start soon, '' two weeks!'' he said excitedly. the hokage sent him down to the training field to meet hayate, it was friday and he hadn't had any lessons in nearly 3 weeks.

when he got to the training field, hayate was already there and waiting. '' hello hayate sempai!'' he called out, '' guess what!?''

'' what naruto?''

'' i used the dance of the elemental blade on this last missions. we got jumped by four chuunin level shinobi, i got took two of them out with it! i actually got it right too. '' naruto said happily.

'' wow, which element did you use?''

'' katon, it seemed appropriate, and i still have a hard time with doton, or else i would have used that one. ''

'' very good naruto, and since you have trouble with doton, lets practice that right now. '' hayate told him.

'' hai, sempai.'' and they began their training with the earth element sword.

as they were cooling down and naruto was getting ready to go start his taijutsu training with gai, the hokage appeared. '' naruto, i need you to come to the hokage tower, there is someone you need to meet. i'm positive he can help you with the hirashin, and another one of your fathers techniques.''

'' hai sensei'' naruto replied and did a shishuin no jutsu, ending up in the hokage's office. when he looked around he saw an older man with spikey white hair looking at him.

'' who are you?'' the white haired man asked.

just then, the hokage came in.

'' who is this sensei?'' naruto asked.

'' oh naruto, i see you've met jiraya.''

'' what!'' jiraya practically yelled, ' this is your new apprentice? the one you were telling me about? minato's kid?!... well.. now that you mention it he does look a lot like his old man...''

this time it was naruto's turn to be shocked. '' you knew my tou-san?'' naruto asked.

'' yeah, i was his sensei. namikaze minato, right kid.''

'' hai, and i'm namikaze naruto. sensei said that you could help me perfect my hirashin no jutsu, and teach me another one of my tou-san's jutsus.

'' well, how far are you on the hirashin?'' jiraya asked him.

'' i can do it perfectly with 6 kunai, but when is start to get higher than that i start going to the kunai behind me instead of in front of me, i've been working on it but i'm kind of stuck.'' she said sheepishly.

'' i should be able to help you... and sensei, the only other jutsu that minato did exclusively was the rasengan, do you think this kid's ready?''

'' i do, he's quite capable already, by the way do you have your summoning scroll with you?''

'' yeah i do sensei, why?'' jiraya asked.

'' i want him to sign it.'' the hokage answered.

'' but sensei!'' naruto said, '' can i have two contracts at once?''

'' hai. and the toads are just as powerful as the apes are. '' he reassured naruto.

'' okay, come on kid, lets go. which field do you train at?'' jiraya asked.

'' eight'' naruto answered.

'' good, see ya there. '' and with that he was gone with a poof, followed by naruto.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: thank you, most of you, for the reviews, two of them were helpful, but one of them was just stupid. the shift button really doesn't matter unless you are typing a report or something.**

**and it's not the sasame from cannon, it's just a name i thought sounded good... i actually didn't even think of that character when i put her in it.. just another team mate.**

**as for a pairing... i don't know who i'm gonna pair him up with yet... i'll let you guys decided between: **

**naruto/temari**

**naruto/sakura**

**naruto/ten ten**

**naruto/sasame**

**naruto/hinata**

**tell me which one i should put in a review pleease. **

**on with the story!**

naruto decided to walk to the training ground, instead of using one of his shishuin no jutsu, figured it would give him more time to think. ' what did that man say? rasengan? i wonder what that was?' he brooded to himself as he walked. 'what ever it is, i'll learn it. i'll make my father proud' he decided silently.

his walk took him by the village's most popular hot spring. the steam that rose out of the springs felt nice against his body, like a warm mist. he was distracted from his current thoughts by the sound of a many chuckling pervertedly to himself. ' dammit, i hate perverts.' he thought to himself, ' no respect, none whatsoever.' he decided to sneak up on the ero and try to scare him into submission. he nearly gasped out loud when he saw who it was.

''ero sennin'' he mumbled quietly to himself. he thought about what to do to the old pervert..' should i use a katon.. maybe a doton... oh wait, yes thats perfect!' he thought excitedly to himself.

he sped through a few seals and mumbled something under his breath. just then, a giant dragon made of water erupted out of the hot spring and straight for jiraya, '' kuso!!'' he shouted before being hit full force by the jutsu. of coarse naruto hadn't made it very strong, no... the object of the jutsu was not to hurt the sannin, it was to simply expose him. and expose him it did, for as he was hit with the jutsu, he was pushed into the very baths he had just been peeking on.

'' EEEEK! DIRTY OLD MAN!'' and all the girls started to gang up on him.

when he was thoroughly beaten by the girls in the bath, naruto walked up next to him and simply said, '' suiton: water dragon no jutsu'' then picked him up and put him on his feet, '' so ero sennin, how about that training?''

as they walked jiraya sent an evil look over to his new apprentice. '' you interrupted my research kid.'' he mumbled. '' i need inspiration for my icha icha paradise series ya know!''

naruto looked at him. somehow, it didn't surprise him that a dirty old man was the one to write those books. '' well, do research on your own time ero sannin! you promised to train me! i want to perfect my tou-sans favorite jutsu to honor him, i want to be able to wear the name of namikaze proudly someday, but i can only do that when i get stronger.'' naruto finished.

' well, he's got a good heart.' jiraya thought.

as they were walking to the training grounds they passed team seven training. kakashi and jiraya talked for a while about, what else, jiraya's perverted porn novels, while naruto talked with sasame and, attempted to talk with, her team mates.

'' so... how's training?'' he asked sasame.

'' good. we're learning to climb trees with out feet. '' she said happily.

'' thats cool.. just wait till you learn to walk on water, that one's a real trip!'' naruto laughed.

sasuke walked up when they were in the middle of their laughter. '' fight me.'' he said. naruto looked at him like was crazy.

'' what? why?'' he asked.

'' i have to know which on of us is stronger, now fight or lose by default!'' he shouted.

'' okay, then i guess i lose. i have no desire to fight to find out who is strongest.'' naruto replied, turning to walk back to his sensei. kakashi and jiraya had heard the uchiha challenge naruto, and would have stepped in if naruto had agreed, but both were surprised when he had denied to challenge. '' if you really want to fight, then i'll fight you at the chuunin exams next week, if you are going that is.'' he said just before reaching jiraya. when he got there he and his new sensei did a shinshuin no jutsu, ending up on the far end of the training field eight in a matter of seconds.

as soon as they were gone sasuke turned on his teacher, '' kakashi-sensei!'' he nearly shouted, '' are we going to take the chuunin exams?''

kakashi seemed to be thinking, he looked down as sasuke, '' yes i think i'll put in the exams, just remember, you may not pass your first time around. '' he said, then he told them to keep working on their tree climbing while he did ' other things'.

'' okay kid, let me see your hirashin. '' jiraya said while he sat up in a tree. naruto took out all 12 of his special kunai and threw them, each on farther than the last. after about six, he started to go back and forth between kunai he'd already thrown, while the ones he had just thrown were being paid no attention. '' i think i know what the problem is.'' jiraya said, getting naruto's full attention. '' you aren't putting an equal amount of chakra into every kunai, if you put too much, your body will be drawn to it, and if you put too little, it will register as a kunai you've already been too. you have to put an equal amount into each kunai before you throw it or else the time for the chakra to escape will be different and mess up your senses. now try it again.''

naruto did. and about four hours later he was able to put an exact amount into each kunai, allowing him to move freely through all twelve.

'' finally! wow ero sannin, your good, you knew what the problem was after seeing me perform it only once!'' naruto said excitedly.

'' well, i am the great jiraya!'' he said happily.

in light of his achievement, jiraya took him to a restaurant of his choice, naruto, of coarse, picked ichiraku's ramen shop.

'' ohayo ojii-san, ayame-chan'' he said as he walked in. '' can i get a pork ramen today?!''

''sure thing naruto.'' the old man said.

'' would your friend like anything naruto-kun?'' ayame asked him.

'' hey there...'' he started before naruto poked a kunai into his back. '' don't make any sudden moves, or say anything perverted to ayame-chan... this is my favorite restaurant and i will not be kicked out...'' he whispered.

'' i'll have apork ramen as well.'' jiraya said. he leaned over to naruto and whispered, '' i get a full day of research tomorrow... ''

'' fine.'' naruto said, slightly annoyed.

it had been about a week since naruto started his training with jiraya...

'' ERO SENNIN!! THE CHUUNIN EXAM IS TOMMOROW AND YOU HAVEN'T TAUGHT ME THE RASENGAN YET!!'' naruto yelled as jiraya was doing his 'research'.

'' be quiet kid, i don't want to get caught.'' he whispered.

''why i oughta...'' he mumbled as he did a few quick hand seals. ' time for that new jutsu hokage sensei taught me' he thought as he yelled '' doton: earth dragon missile!''

'' look kid'' he shouted while dodging the pieces of earth flying at him, '' i'll teach you rasengan when you finish the second exam''

'' what? why not now?''

'' because, if you can't get through the second exam you have no business learning this technique... however, you can do this right now.'' he said as he pulled out a summoning scroll. '' sign it, then try a summon.''

naruto signed his name,namikaze naruto, and did the seals, when he was done a medium sized frog in battle armor appeared. ' thats not what i was looking for' he thought as he sent the frog back. this time he went through the seals and added more chakra into the last one. this time a giant frog with a pipe and a sword appeared.

**'' JIRAYA!! I TOLD YOU NOT TO SUMMON ME SO SOON!'' **he yelled.

'' hey gama, well... uh i didn't summon you... this kid did. he wants to ask permission to use the toads.'' jiraya told the toad.

'' hi. i'm namikaze naruto. i already have a pact with my sensei's apes... i was wondering if i could have the same honor with the toads.. uh... gama sama.'' naruto said nervously.

**'' namikaze huh... you wouldnt be minato's kid would ya?''** gamabunta asked him.

'' yup. thats me. '' naruto smiled brightly.

**'' alright, your old man was a good guy. now, don't summon me unless you need me. UNDERSTAND?''**

'' ...uh...hai... gama sama.''

with that gamabunta disappeared.

'' the apes seem nicer.'' naruto said... jiraya agreed. '' you better go see the hokage about tomorrow's arrangements kid... as far as i know you're the only single participant in the entire exam. ''

'' hai, ero-sannin.'' with that he disappeared.

he ended up right outside the hokage tower and jumped in through the window.

'' hey sensei... jiraya said i should come see you about my arrangements in the exams.''

the sandaime looked over when he heard naruto. '' ah yes, well. as you know you're the only single participant. i suggest you use shadow clones and summons to help you... not that you should need it. your well above genin level. ''

naruto blushed in embarrassment. '' arigato sensei. is that all?''

'' no.. remember, your identity as namikaze must be kept a secret until after you've become at least a chuunin. minato had a lot of enemies in the stone village, and from what i hear they have 3 genin teams participating. they might even recognize your looks, since you bear a strong resemblance to your father, so watch your back. and good luck. ''

naruto nodded and headed home to prepare for his test. ' by the end of this test, i'll be a chuunin for sure' he thought to himself.


	5. Chapter 5

naruto woke up the next day same time as usual and headed to the training grounds to start his morning exercises. just because he has exams today doesn't mean he can skip training. so he ran his usual 50 laps around the training area, which was steadily becoming easier and easier, even with the increased weight. when he finished that, he started practicing his taijutsu with a shadow clone. he even had the shadow clone do one style while he did the other to make it harder. finally, he practiced his ninjutsu, starting with hirashin, which, he was happy to say he'd nearly mastered. after going through his new favorite jutsu a few times, he started working on his elemental ninjutsu. he was fine with katon suiton and doton. he was a natural with fuiton, he loved wind jutsu. the one he was having the hardest time with was still raikiri. '' god, stupid electricity... why's it gotta be so hard?!'' he yelled.

'' because, your natural affinity is wind.'' said a lazy voice behind him.

'' ero sannin?!'' he yelled, '' how long have you been here?''

'' sine you started training... everything's loking good by the way, event the few electric jutsu you know look pretty good. after this test i'll help you with it... i know a certain jounin in this village who is very good with raikiri and would love to help you master it. but now, i need you to come with me.'' jiraya grabbed his arm and drug him away from his training.

'' whats the deal?'' he huffed, angry that he was interrupted '' if i don't train i won't pass the exams!''

'' think of this as mental training kid'' said jiraya, '' now, what is the most important shinobi art?'' he asked in all seriousness.

'' deception.'' answered naruto quickly. the hokage had beaten that into the child's head every Tuesday since he started his training.

'' exactly, now, i was thinking that you should hide your true power from your opponents until the exams start getting intense... only use as many jutsu as you need, no reason to get flashy. understand? and i would refrain from using the hirashin in front of the stone genin, if they have older jounin instructors i'm sure they'll recognize it.''

'' okay, i won't use my true strength until the finals, thats when i'm supposed to show my stuff right?''

'' right kid. now, the first part of the test starts in about an hour. make sure you're there.. on time.'' he added.

'' hai!'' he said and took off to his apartment.

an hour later he was on his way to the academy to meet for the first test. when he got to the front, he saw his sensei, he sandaime hokage.

'' oi! sensei!'' he yelled. the hokage looked over at him and smiled. '' naruto, so glad you're here. i wanted to talk to you before you went in to take your exam. ''

'' is it about me hiding my true power and not using the hirashin until the finals?''

the hokage looked at him and nodded.

'' ero sannin already talked with me about this. no need to worry sensei.'' he said happily.

'' thats good to hear. okay you meed the rest of the genin in room 301, don't be late you have about 45 minuets to get there... i'd go now though.''

so naruto made his way up to room 301 to begin the road to becoming a chuunin. when he came up the stairs he saw sasuke's team talking to some of the chuunin guards about the genjutsu that was placed over the door. when they released it, 201 was displayed above the door. 'well i guess he does specialize in genjutsu' naruto thought to himself as he walked over to sasuke and his group. as he was walking up to sasuke, he saw some sand genin walk by, and one stopped right in front of sasuke. they talked about something, then the sand ninja left. ' that one with the gourd on his back..' naruto thought, ' there's something about him...' deciding not to butt in, he went to talk to sasuke's team about the genjutsu.

''hey guys, see you shot down their genjutsu'' he laughed.

sasuke just smirked, '' of coarse.'' and walked away. before he could get any farther however, and older boy with brown hair and lavender, pupil less , eyes stopped him. sasuke looked behind him at the boy.

'' what is your name?'' he asked looking at sasuke.

'' you should give your name first. '' sasuke answered back.

the brown haired boy scoffed, '' i am hyuuga neji. you would show some respect.'' neji said coldly.

'' and i'm uchiha sasuke, i owe you no allegiance. '' he continued toward room 301.

'' come one neji,'' his team mate, a brow haired kunoichi, said. '' he's just a rookie. hardly worth our time.''

'' i know ten ten... '' neji said.

'' i will meet you at the room. do not wait for me.'' a tall boy with a bowl cut and green jump suit declared, who naruto recognized as lee from his training with gai sensei.

'' what are you doing lee?'' ten ten asked.

'' nothing to worry about ten ten. '' and with that he took off after sasuke and his team.

naruto followed due to the fact that he was going the same direction. ' so those are lee's team mates.. i wonder if they're strong...' his thoughts were interrupted when he heard two people yelling at each other in the room just beyond the one he was in. he quickly ran to the door to see what it was and saw lee was fighting sasuke... and kicking his butt.. with nothing but taijutsu... of coarse, from what he'd learned, lee didn't have ninjutsu or genjutsu, so he spent all of his time on taijutsu, as was really great at it. in fact, during his training with guy he would spar with lee... of coarse he never won..lee was just too good at taijutsu... then naruto started laughing. ' ah, sasuke-teme has no chance. ' and he was right. as the fight went on, it became more and more obvious that sasuke just wasn't a match for lee, even with his sharingan.

'' why can't i read your moves?!'' yelled sasuke.

'' i have had much practice fighting against people who use dojutsu. my own team mate, hyuuga neji, is a user of the byakuugan. and he is much stronger than i am. you have no place in this competition, you haven't worked hard enough to earn the right. before sasuke could say anymore, lee had bowed to him and started walking away. '' i have no wish to finish this fight, by the way, my name is rock lee.''

'' oi! lee!'' naruto yelled, '' wait for me, we can walk together.''

lee looked around and located the noise. '' oh naruto-kun, i heard you would be here. gai sensei said that hokage-sama got the council to agree to let you participate by yourself. '' he yelled across the room to naruto, who picked up speed and ended up right next to lee in he blink of an eye. '' yup'' he answered. '' i'm all by my lonesome.. but thats okay. i have bunshins and summons to keep my company. '' he smiled up at lee and the two started to walk away until he heard someone yell to him.

'' naruto!'' sasuke yelled. '' how do you know this loser?!''

'' lee's my sparring partner.. if you can call it that... i've never beaten him once! came close a few times though.. '' he said as he thought back on those few occasions when he managed to nearly defeat the green clad warrior.

'' yes, naruto-kun's an exceptional shinobi... his taijutsu is very good indeed. '' lee bragged about naruto.

'' lets go lee... i gotta talk to you about someting...''

'' okay naruto-kun, lets go meet the rest of the participants. '' and the two began to walk away again.

they arrived at the right room, team 7 hot on their trail. when they arrived, lee went to find his team mates, and naruto was greeted by the other 9 genin rookies, and the sight of 50 other genin shinobi from other villages, along with their own. but they didn't pay any of the other nin's any mind. as soon as naruto and lee walked in with sasuke, sakura, and sasame, the rookies all started conversing, rather loudly.

'' oh sasuke-kun, you look handsome as ever'' ino fawned. shikamaru and choji walked over to talk to naruto, and kiba came to talk too.

'' so how have you guys all been? '' naruto asked.

'' good'' was the general response. '' tell me naruto, how is training under the hokage? '' kiba asked, curiosity evident in his eyes.

'' its going great, but, the training is a secret, so i can't really tell much. '' naruto told them all. they were al talking and having a good time when another leave shinobi came up to them.

'' you know,'' he started, '' you probably shouldn't talk so loud. you starting to annoy some of the older shinobi.''

'' who cares about them. if they have problems, they can come talk to us about it.'' sasuke said, cocky as ever.

'' suit yourself. i actually came over to talk to you guys for a different reason. i'm yakushi kabuto... and you're the ' rookie 10' are you not?'' he asked looking at them. '' well, i have just the thing for you then. '' he pulled out a set of blank cards.

'' what do those do?'' sasuke scoffed.

'' these,'' he continued, '' are chakra cards. they tell you anything you want to know about anyone in this test. sasuke looked impressed. '' i want to see information on rock lee, gaara of the desert, and uzumaki naruto. ''

some of the other genin gasped at the last name. '' why do you want to know about the baka?'' ino asked. he didn't answer, keeping his eyes on the white haired boy with the cards. '' well kabuto, do you have their cards?''

'' lets see. rock lee. he has been a genin for a year longer than you. seems to have no ninjutsu or genjutsu abilities, but has immensely strong taijutsu. he's been on 12 c rank and 50 d rank missions. not bad at all. '' he said looking at the card. '' however, there's barely any information on this gaara. only that he's been on 2 b rank and 1 a rank mission... and both times didn't come back with so much as a scratch... now thats impressive. '' kabuto informed them. ' so there is something to this guy...' naruto was shaken from his thoughts when he remembered that the last card was on him. ' oh no, what if it has info on my parents, or my rather large arsenal of jutsu? ' kabuto was shaking his head. '' i don't have an uzumaki naruto here.. i do have a nami-'' before he could finish his sentence however, the card he had went up in flames. '' lets keep my info a secret, makes the whole thing more fun.'' naruto said, smiling at kabuto.

' what's he hiding?' sasuke began to brood when moreno ibiki entered the room.

'' allright you punks. everyone find a seat, it's time for the written exam. before we start, i have a few rules to give you.

1. there is to be no talking during this exam, anyone who does so and is caught will be failed along with their team.

2. if you are caught cheating 5 times by our sentinels,'' he pointed to 10 shinobi around the room, '' you and your team will fail. ''

3. there will be 10 questions. 9 written, and one oral . the tenth question will be given out 20 minuets before the end of the exam. you may begin. ''

everyone turned their papers over an started to read the questions. naruto immediately noticed the difficulty of these questions. '' not many genin are going to know the answer to these questions...' after thinking about it for a few minuets naruto figured it out. 'we're supposed to cheat.' he looked down at the questions again and noticed that he could answer 4 of them without cheating, but the other 5 he would need to cheat to answer. in order to get his answers, he did a few quick seals and did kage bunshin henge, into small flies and sent them out to scout for the last few answers. after a few minuets, the bunshins had dispelled themselves and he now knew the answers to all of the questions.

'well,' he thought, that was fairly easy. he decided to follow in the footsteps of shikamaru, and take a nap.

he was woken up to the sound of ibiki yelling to the class about the final question.

'' if you get this wrong, you will never be able to take the chuunin exam again.'' he yelled to them. a few people raised their ands, deciding to try again in six months. ' what a load of shit' naruto thought to himself, ' he doesn't have the authority to do that, these kids should really use their brains.' finally, there were close to 18 teams left when he told them all they passed.

'' nani? what was the tenth question?''

'' that was the 10 question. to see weather you had enough confidence in your team to carry out a mission successfully. those left, didn't have what it takes. ''

as soon as he finished his speech, a purple haired kunoichi jumped in through the window. '' alright maggots!'' she yelled to the class, '' it's time to see how well you do in the wild. be at training ground 44 within the hour. '' and she disappeared, leaving the class confused, to say the least.

naruto disappeared in the same fashion as their next proctor had as soon as he left the building. when he got to the test grounds, he decided to take a look around, see what he was going to be up against. ' this forest looks pretty bad ass! ' he thought to himself. getting through it with 18 other teams sounded very difficult. he decided to get back to town before anyone thought he was cheating, so he disappeared yet again and ended up at his favorite ramen shop.

'' hey ojii-san, can i get a quick bowl?''

'' sure thing naruto... how are those exams coming along?'' he asked naruto.

'' i passed the first one. i have about 45 minuets till the next one starts, just figured i'd grab a quick bite to eat, don't want to waste the food i brought for this exercise'' he laughed.

'' thats great to hear, tell ya what, i'll give you the house special on the house today, think of it as a token of good luck. ''

naruto was more than happy to oblige. after he ate his ramen, he went back to the training field. he decided to teleport to the most discreet place he had managed to find during his inspection earlier. to his relief, no one was there when he appeared.

five minuets after he arrived, the purple haired kunoichi appeared. '' okay maggots, my name is matarashi anko. i'm your proctor for the second part of the exam. this, is the forest of death.'' as she said that, peoples face paled considerably. but she noticed that naruto's had not. ' well, might as well show this punk ' she thought. before anyone could do anything, she had thrown a kunai straight at naruto, who surprisingly, managed to not only dodge it, but catch in on the tip of his kunai and fling it back at her. she arrived behind naruto faster than anyone could see and put a kunai to his neck. '' i see we've got some talent here'' she chirped. before she could say anymore, she felt the poke of a kunai in her lower back. when she turned around, she came face to face with a solid bunshin of the boy in front of her.

'' you are an interesting one... whats your name?''

'' uzumaki naruto.'' he replied.

'' oh.. no wonder. your the hokages apprentice aren't you''

'' hai''. he said.


	6. Chapter 6

anko was walked back from her little ' demonstration' with naruto and turned to face the group. '' alright maggots, i have two scrolls here. one heaven, and one earth. '' she said as she held up two scrolls. '' your 'mission' is to get both scrolls to the tower in the center of the forest in five days or less. '' the students looked around at each other and shrugged. '' but, there's a catch. each team will receive one, either a heaven or an earth. which means, in order to pas you have to steal a matching scroll from another team. so, half of you will, without a doubt, fail... more than likely, more than half will fail. you may use any jutsu you want, even fatal jutsu. thats right, you can kill all ya want. '' she chirped. '' now, everyone read one of these. '' she said as she and the assistant proctors passed out a release form. '' konoha can't be held responsible for those who lose their lives.''

everyone took the papers and pens and started reading the release forms. '' after you've signed it, take it to a dest up there. they'll give you a scroll and a gate number. hurry up, the faster you do this, the faster we start.''

naruto signed his paper after skimming over it quickly. then he went up to the closest desk and turned in his paper work. '' uzumaki naruto... gate 17.'' said one of the proctors, then he handed him a scroll. naruto made his way over to gate 17 and thought about his strategy for a minuet. then, he made a few quick seals and 4 kage bunshins appeared. he told them to scout ahead of him when the gates opened. '' look for any weak looking teams and any traps.. if you find anything good just dis spell yourselves. '' after that he did a few more seals and yelled ''Kuchiyose no jutsu: Enta!'' and a forest green ape appeared in a poof of smoke.

'' you summoned'' he said.

'' yeah, i need your help enta, you up for a fight?''

'' of coarse,'' the ape replied, '' are these the chuunin exams?''

'' hai... and i don't have a team, so i figured you could team up with me. ''

'' it would be my honor, naruto-kun'' he said. a few minuets later the gates opened up and naruto's bunshin rushed into the forest in different directions. naruto and enta made their way cautiously into the forest. they were about 15 minuets in when naruto was suddenly flooded with the memories of a bunshin. as soon as he sifted through the memory, he smirked. '' hey enta, it would seem that there is a fairly weak team directly in front of us... shall we have some fun?'' they both started chuckling quietly as they picked up speed. they stopped about 20 feet from their ' prey' and observed them silently. ' shinobi of the stone' naruto thought to himself, ' well.. i guess hirashin is out on this fight for sure.'

'' give me the scroll!'' one yelled at another.

'' no way baka! this is way too important for you to handle.''

'' what are you talking about? ''

'' i'm talking about how much of a loser you are... you'd probably drop it.. or give it to an enemy without a fight!'' the other boy gave him a dirty look, but walked away, defeated.

naruto and enta were waiting for a good time to attack when a golden opportunity arose. they decided to split up and set traps. ' perfect' naruto thought to himself. '' hey enta'' he whispered, '' lets go'' and the two followed the boy with the scroll until he was far enough from his team mates. naruto jumped behind him and put a kunai against his neck '' make so much as a peep and i'll cut your throat'' naruto warned. ''enta.. get the scroll.'' enta went over to the boy and took his entire scroll pouch and emptied it.. he rummaged through them until he found what he was looking for. '' ah, i have the scroll naruto-kun.'' naruto nodded and proceeded to knock the stone shinobi unconscious. '' wow, these stone genin sure are weak.'' he said. then he looked over at the large pile of scrolls sitting on the ground. he went through them all and found 2 that caught his interest. a katon scroll and a suiton scroll. '' these are coming with me'' he said as he stuffed them into his pouch.

'' naruto-kun, we have a problem.'' enta said as they were walking away. '' what is it ?'' naruto asked. '' well, they seemed to be a little smarter than we thought, but not any stronger...'' he handed the scroll to naruto and after looking it over, one detail in particular screamed at him. ''they...they spelled earth wrong?!'' he said, barely able to control his laughter. after the two laughed for a little while, they decided to go get the REAL scroll. '' okay, i'll do a henge and transform into this idiot and get the scroll... stay here and make sure the doesn't move.'' naruto said as he went through the seals. '' henge!'' he yelled. enta gave him the thumbs up and he left to find his '' team mates'. when he got back to the place where they had originally met up, he saw the other two walking up. '' hey guys! '' he yelled, trying to imitate the boy he was transformed into. '' can i see the scroll real quick, we should make sure the fake looks like the real one.''

'' okay.. here'' he tossed naruto the scroll. he easily caught it and smirked. '' thanks... kai'' he said and he turned back into himself. '' bye bye...'' and with that he disappeared in a poof of smoke to where enta was with the unconscious boy. after looking it over a few times and deciding it was, in fact, a real earth scroll, they decided that naruto should get to the tower. '' i'll summon you again when i need help'' naruto said. '' i will look forward to it.'' he said as he returned to his world. naruto put the scroll with his heaven scroll and performed shishuin no jutsu, disappearing with a poof and ending up right in front of a large tower in the center of the forest. ' this must be the tower she was talking about' he thought as he entered.

when he walked in he saw a riddle on the wall. after a few minuets of pondering what i could mean, he decided it meant to open both scrolls at once. when he opened it, much to his surprise, iruka popped out.

'' iruka sensei?'' naruto questioned.

'' naruto? nice to see you made it.. and your the first one to do so!'' iruka said proudly. '' how'd you do it?''

'' it's kind of a long story.'' he said sheepishly, while scratching the back of his head.

'' well, we have 5 days, think you can tell me it by then?'' iruka said.

'' okay... well...'' and he told iruka the whole story, from the skirmish with anko, all the way to entering the tower. '' wow naruto, thats incredible.'' he said. '' but i don'thave much time left, i have to get back to wait for the other early worms, and the slow pokes as well. '' he told naruto. '' you can pick your room from any of these doors, the training hall is on the end through the farthest door on the right and the cafeteria is on the opposite side, farthest door to the left. '' and without further ado, he disappeared in the same manner as naruto had.

naruto decided to pick the bedroom closest to the training hall, it had a soft bed, a desk, and a big window he could see part of the forest from. he decided to take the scrolls he had taken from that boy out and look them over. he looked at the katon scroll first. ' hmm... there are three i haven't seen before.' the three he hadn't seen before were: the balsam spread fire, phoenix flower jutsu, and a particularly flashy looking one called the fire dragon flame missile. he decided to take the scroll into the training hall with him and see if he could learn anything.

once inside the training hall, he looked at the first one one more time, '' okay'' he said as he gathered his chakra. '' katon: balsam spread fire no jutsu!'' he said, and as he breathed out, nearly the entire floor burst into flames. ' cool' he thought to himself. he quickly started the seals for the second jutsu on the list, excited with his success, but stopped when he heard someone shout at him.

'' woah kid hold it! '' the man said. naruto recognized his voice however and turned around. '' ero sannin?' he said. '' what are you doing here?''

'' well.. we had a deal remember. and you passed the second exam, so i guess i'll teach you the rasengan. '' jiraya told naruto. '' now watch.'' naruto looked at his hand for a couple of seconds, then a blue sphere of chakra appeared on his hand. ' i can see the chakra!' he thought to himself, ' how is that possible?'

'' now here, take this water balloon and make it pop by spinning chakra inside of it.'' jiraya told him.

'' hai!'' naruto said as he took the balloon and started spinning chakra inside. he noticed that the surface was smooth,not all bumpy like the sannin's had been. he thought about it for a minuet then it hit him and he started making the chakra spin in several different directions at once. and sure enough, the balloon burst.

'' nice naruto, now, take this rubber ball. you have the spin, now you need the power.'' so one again naruto spun his chakra inside the ball and slowly added power to it until a whole appeared in the side of the ball. ' thats not quite right.' he said to himself. i need more power.' so he experimented with different levels of power until he finally found the right amount. '' hey ero sannin, if i want to make this rasengan stronger or weaker i just add or take away power right?'' he asked. '' yeah kid. thats exactly it. now, for the last step... make a rasengan inside this balloon, but don't let it move. you have to keep complete control over the chakra's spin and power. ''

he tossed naruto a bag of balloons and he started practicing. this step, he soon realized, was much more difficult than the previous two. he almost did it a few times, but just as he would get the hang of it, something would happen and the balloon would pop. eventually, he depleted almost all of his chakra and had to take the rest of the night off. '' don't worry, you have 4 days, i'm sure you'll get it by then.'' jiraya told naruto.

he decided to hit the cafeteria before going to bed that night. when he walked in, he saw the group of sand genin from earlier that day. he decided to go talk to them.

'' oi,'' he called out. '' i'm uzumaki naruto. it's nice to meet you, when did you guys get here?''

'' a few hours ago'' replied a teenage boy with a black jump suit and purple and white face paint. '' what about you?''

'' about 6 hours ago.. what're your names?''

'' well,'' the same boy replied. '' i'm konkuro, this is my sister temari, and my brother gaara.''

naruto looked at gaara...' there's still something about this kid..' '' hey gaara, can i talk to you for a second.'' gaara just stared at him like he was insane. '' why.'' he said in a monotone voice. '' well, i just have a question i'd like to ask you..thats all. '' naruto said.. a little creeped out by his voice. gaara thought about it for a while, but in the end he just walked away.

'damn' naruto thought, ' whats with that kid.'

before he could pursue it any further however, he felt the need to sleep, a powerful need to sleep. ' i have four days... sleep sounds so good.' he thought to himself and started walking out of the cafeteria and to his bedroom. as soon as he hit the pillow he was asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

it's been three days since naruto arrived at the tower in the middle of the forest of death and he was still having issues with his new jutsu, the rasengan.

'' what am i still doing wrong?'' he said '' i can hold it for a few seconds then it-'' he was cut off when jutsu exploded in his face. '' explodes in my face'' he finished, slightly irritated. jiraya thought about it for a minuet, then it came to him.

'' ah, give me your hand naruto.'' naruto just looked at him, but gave him his hand anyway. '' whatchya up to ero sannin? '' he asked, truly curious.

'' well, this jutsu requires a lot of concentration, and it just so happens that it's much easier to concentrate when you have a focal point.'' as he said all of this, he drew a kanji is the shape of a leaf. '' when you're building up your chakra, think of this symbol and it will make the jutsu easier.

naruto tried again and found that he was able to sustain it for close to 30 seconds, and after a few hours of practice he could easily sustain the jutsu for 5 minuets, more than enough time to us it in a fight.

''thats great kid, now you can use your both of your fathers favorite jutsu. '' jiraya said happily to naruto. '' he'd be proud. now, if you'll excuse me, i have to business to attend to..'' and with that he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, only to reappear at the hot springs to do a little ' research'.

'one more day until the final exam... i wonder if i'm ready?' he thought to himself. as he was walking, he saw just the person he wanted to see.

'' ah! gaara! hey gaara, '' he said to the red haired suna genin. he looked over at naruto and just stared at him, hoping to scare the blond shinobi away, however it was futile. '' hey gaara, i have a question...'' naruto yelled to him again. he had been trying to talk to his kid since he got there, but every time he just turned around and walked away. ' maybe, if i ask enough times, he'll talk to me.' naruto thought. an sure enough, gaara did just that. '' find, what do you want to know.'' he said, slightly annoyed at the boys determination.

'' i want to know why your chakra feels similar to mine.'' naruto replied with all seriousness. gaara just looked at him, and then he noticed it. ' his chakra is similar to mine!' he thought shocked, ' but, how is that possible?'

'' i could ask you the same question.'' he replied. naruto looked at him and sighed. ' this is going to be harder than i thought.. of coarse he doesn't want to tell me about it, people probably stare at him too. ' naruto thought sadly, remembering all the cold hearted glares he receives on a daily basis. '' well, let me be more direct. do you have a tailed demon sealed into your body?'' gaara looked at him shocked. '' so, i was right, you and me, we're the same.'' gaara just continued to stare. naruto continued in an effort to get gaara to open up to him. '' when i was a baby, my tou-san sealed the kyuubi inside of me to protect the village. he died in the process and many people resent me for that, all they see me as is the demon, i was, so alone, for so long, but i found people, people who care for me. so, i'm not alone anymore.'' he said with a small smile on his face. when he looked up, he saw gaara looking at the floor.

'' i'm alone.'' he said. '' no friends, everyone is afraid of me. i... i kill to prove my existence, that's what my purpose in life is. i live for me, i don't need people.'' he said, still looking at the floor.

'' i could be your friend.'' naruto said. gaara looked up at him. '' you... you're not scared? '' he said in disbelief. naruto just smiled and motioned for him to sit down. they talked for hours about all kinds of different things, well, naruto did most of the talking, but gaara added in his two sense occasionally.

'' so gaara, why do you have the dark circles around your eyes? don't you get enough sleep?'' naruto asked him. gaara just looked down. '' i can't sleep, shukaku takes over my body when i do and, well, i'm sure you can guess why thats bad. '' he finished. naruto thought for a minuet and then looked up with a grin on his face. '' i bet one of my sensei's could help you with your seal, make it so you can sleep and everything. '' naruto said. gaara looked up at him with hopeful eyes. ''y.. you would do that for me?!'' he asked. '' thats what friends are for. '' naruto grinned at him.

'' well, i have to go find my team now, but i'd like to talk with you again... it was... fun.'' he said before disappearing in a swirl of sand. naruto for one was extremely proud of himself. he had been trying to get through to that boy for 3 days now and he had finally done it. he decided to go to the cafeteria and see if he could find any of his friends. sure enough, when he got there he saw hinata, kiba, shino, sakura, sasuke, sasame, lee, ten ten, and neji. ' i wonder where ino,shikamaru, and choji are...' he thought as they came through the door looking rather frazzled. '' oh'' he said to himself, '' there they are! looks like we all passed the second part of the exam. '' he walked over to his friends and started to say hello. sasuke looked at him and noticed how dirty he looked.

'' hey dobe, did you just get here or something? man that's pathetic, 3 days to make it through that forest. my team made it in 2'' he bragged. naruto looked at sasuke, then at his torn up cloths and made the connection. '' oh, haha, no i've been here for 3 days, i got here about 2 hours after the exam started... jiraya sensei has been training me... i just got the hang of this really cool new jutsu today. '' he said happily. the rookies just looked at him with open mouths. '' you made it here in 2 hours?!'' shikamaru said in disbelief. '' you learned a new jutsu!'' sasuke said angry.

'' haha... yeah.'' he said, slightly nervous.

'' c...can we see this new jutsu..na..naruto -kun?'' hinata peeped. naruto looked at her and smiled. '' sure thing hinata.'' then he focused all of his chakra into a ball on his palm and showed everyone his rasengan. neji and hinata tried to look at it with their byuakuugan, but found out the hard way that it was just too much for them. the two closed their eyes and looked away in pain. naruto quickly dropped the jutsu. '' whats wrong? you guys okay?'' he asked, slightly worried for his friends.

'' that ball, it's nothing but chakra.. and you can see if with the human eye... it was so bright with my dojutsu activated.'' neji said in awe, '' where did you learn that?''

'' jiraya sensei taught me.'' he said happily. sasuke was furious. ' how.. i was the top student at the academy, i'm an uchiha, a member of an elite clan...and he was the low of the low, bottom rung, lowest grades... why does he get all the special treatment.. the hokage.. jiraya of the sannin... who's gonna teach him next?'' sasuke thought in frustration. out of nowhere he looked at naruto and pointed, '' out of every person in this room, you are the one that i want to fight the most, naruto.'' then he urned around and walked away. naruto sweat dropped. 'whats with him?' he thought to himself.

the next day at dawn, the door into the tower was shut and only the shinobi inside passed. '' you have all done exceptionally well in this competition, and i am proud to say that this is the largest amount of genin to pass the second exam in nearly 7 years. however, the daimyo's and kages of the other village will be looking to see the best fights, we do not have time to waste with weaker shinobi, so we have decided to hold a preliminary round to determine who will fight in the finals and who will not. '' the sandaime hokage said to the chuunin hopefuls.

with that he stepped down and naruto's kenjutsu sensei hayate stepped forward. '' we will hold one on one fights, your names will be chosen at random and the winner will go to the finals. anything is permitted, even killing, however, to reduce the death toll, if i feel that a fight is completely one sided, i will step in to determine the winner. before we start, is there anyone here who does not think they can fight and would like to drop out?'' he looked around and one genin raised his hand. it was yakushi kabuto, ' it's that kid, the one with the cards!' naruto thought to himself. '' what's your name? '' hayate asked him. '' kabuto, and i'm just too tired, i won't be able to fight.'' hayate looked him over and told him to go with one of the proctors. '' okay everyone else, good luck. '' he looked back at the board and names of all the genin flew by until two stopped.

'' haruno sakura and hyuuga hinata'' he called out, '' come down to the ring. everyone else find a place on the balcony. ''

hinata and sakura made their way to the ring and stared each other down. when everyone was quiet, they each sank into a taijutsu stance. hinata, of coarse, chose the jyuuken stance, her family taijutsu, the gentle fist. sakura, sank into the academy taijutsu stance. when they went for each other, sakura did a series of very slow hand signs and performed a rather recognizable jutsu, the bunshin no jutsu. hinata looked at her confused for a minuet before jumping out of the way of sakura and her bunshins. ' is she trying to trick me?' she thought, but decided she was only over analyzing and sakura had not gotten any stronger since their days at the academy. so hinata sank back into family stance and waited for sakura to come at her again, only this time she hit her with 5 quick jabs that sakura couldn't hope to block, while dodging the slow and easily predictable jabs sakura sent her way, effectively cutting off her chakra network. sakura stumbled back a bit, then fell to the floor unconscious. kakashi just shook his head, knowing full well why she never got any stronger.

when hinata made her way back up, naruto was the first to congratulate her. '' nice fight hinata! not that we saw any of your true skill, but that was still amazing!'' he said to her happily. '' thanks n-naruto kun.''she answered while blushing. 'he told me that i was strong' she squealed mentally. kiba saw her blush and knew immediately what was going on. '' hey shikamaru, look at that'' he said as he elbowed his friend in the ribs, '' i think hinata likes him'' he laughed quietly. '' yeah, i think your right kiba.'' shikamaru said, noticing the red hue on hinata's face. naruto of coarse was completely oblivious to this, or so everyone thought. ' she's blushing' he thought to himself while trying to keep a red stain from forming on his own cheeks. he was saved however by the hokage himself.

'' naruto, come here please.'' the hokage said.

' thank kami sama!' he thought to himself. '' whats up sensei?'' he said as he walked over to his teacher. he led him as far away from the other shinobi as he could. '' naruto, i'm sure you know this, but first i want you to watch every fight intensely, no matter how boring because you could end up fighting the winners of these matches. secondly, i don't think i need to remind you, but don't use that jutsu yet... not until the finals... you know what i'm talking about.'' he said sternly. and naruto did know exactly what jutsu he meant. '' the hirashin'' he whispered. '' exactly. i would be foolish to let your opponents see your best attack, and we want to keep your true identity a secret, if you use it everyone will know because only people of the namikaze blood like can use it, in a way it's a kekkei genkai, so everyone who knows of the yodaime would know, and many people know of him. ''

the genin were getting frustrated on the other side, even kiba's extraordinary senses couldn't pick up what they were talking about. ''damn, i can't hear a thing... i guess the hokage would know just how far he would need to be to be outside my range.'' he sighed in defeat. when naruto started to walk back, he was bombarded with questions from his shinobi comrades. '' sorry sorry, i can't tell you, now be quiet, i need to watch this. '' he said as he looked down at the next fight which had started while he was talking to the hokage. it was a fight between two foreign shinobi, one stone and one mist. as he watched, hes some pretty good doton and suiton jutsu. ' they could use a little work, the water bullets look a little shaky, and his earth wall is a little on the think side.' thought thinking about his own proficiency at the two jutsu.

when the fight was over, the stone ninja was declared the winner and returned to the balcony while his opponent was rushed to the infirmary from the 3 stab wounds. he had used an earth spike jutsu which took the mist ninja by complete surprise and he was stabbed through both legs and his left shoulder, the genin fell unconscious from the pain.

'' and the next pair is... uchiha sasuke and sabaku no konkuro. '' hayate called out. naruto looked down at the pair intensely, 'this' he thought, ' should be a good match.'

the two stared each other down for a couple minuets, then sasuke jumped to the left while throwing a kunai, konkuro just side stepped and kunai sailed right past him. '' is that the best you can do?'' he mocked. sasuke got angry, but he remembered what kakashi had told him. ' don't let your opponent get to you, it'll just trick you into making mistakes you normally wouldn't make.'' so sasuke calmed himself down. ' i'll beat this guy with basic jutsu, no reason to show my stuff yet...' he thought to himself as he slid down into his favorite taijutsu stance. '' come one, lets see what you can do'' he said with diction to konkuro. konkuro took out a scroll, bit his thumb, swiped it across the paper, and yelled ''kuchyose no jutsu!'' and two puppets came out and he connected chakra strings to them. '' you asked for it.'' he said as his puppets began to soar across the room. poisoned weapons shot out from every possible chamber in the puppet, both visible and hidden. sasuke was having a hard time dodging and decided to use his sharingan, even though it was just the preliminaries, his opponent was quiet skilled. ' damn him, well i guess if i hold back too much i might not make it to the finals, ' he thought as he activated his dojutsu. dodging became much easier and he quickly gained the upper hand on his opponent. he was able to get around his puppets easily and land some nice blows on konkuro.

naruto watched the battle intently, ' i wonder who'll win' he thought, knowing full well that sasuke was punching a puppet, not a person. ' if he's activated his sharingan, he should be able to see that as well...' he looked around and found the person he was looking for. '' ah, kakashi-sensei, i've got a question for you. '' kakashi looked down from the fight and looked at naruto. '' what do you need to know? '' he asked. ''well, sasuke has activated his sharingan right?'' kakashi just looked at him, '' yeah'' he said. '' well then why can't he tell that he's hitting a puppet and not a person? it's obvious in the way that it moves that it's not human... and i thought the sharingan made minute details easily visible.'' he said to the jounin.

kakashi looked at him, surprised from his insight, '' well, not everyone pays as much attention to the details as you do, that will be a disadvantage for them, but a great advantage for the other person. '' then he turned his head back toward the fight to watch his pupil continue to beat the stuffing out of a puppet. just before sasuke landed a truly hard punch, the mast on konkuro's face crumbled off to reveal a puppet, and as soon as the puppet appeared, the package on it's back unraveled, leaving an unharmed konkuro on the arena floor. ' not bad,' naruto thought, 'able to control the pupets so easily while being tied up on the back of another puppet. sasuke jumped back and sped through a few seals and yelled, '' katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu!'' and a gigantic fire ball made it's way quickly across the arena floor. 'he's been practicing that alright' naruto thought to himself.

after about 10 minuets of fighting, sasuke managed to lad a blow to the real konkuro's face, earning himself a quick punch in the stomach. the damage, however, had already been done and konkuro looked like he was about to collapse. seeing his chance to win, sasuke leaped forward and punched him again, just as hard as the first time, effectively knocking the sand genin to the ground and knocking him out.

'' winner, sasuke uchiha, next match... uzumaki naruto and inuzuka kiba.'' he called out.


	8. authors note

authors note...

hey everyone...sorry i havn't updated in a while... schools been hectic and what not.. but i'll be updating soon... probably by this weekend or early next week. again sorry for the wait.

thanks for reading.. means alot to a writer


	9. Chapter 9

'' uzumaki naruto and inuzuka kiba, come to the ring please'' hayate called out. naruto was smiling inwardly, knowing that he could easily win against kiba, the question was, how should he go about it? ' i could use taijutsu i guess, that way i wouldn't show too much of my skill, but should i use the technique sensei has taught me, or academy techniques?' As he pondered this, he could hear kiba celebrating. '' this is gonna be so easy, man, i couldn't have gotten a better opponent.'' he laughed. ' just ignore it, his underestimation will work to your advantage' he kept telling himself.

Kurenai looked at the hokage and smirked. '' sorry hokage-sama, but naruto has no chance against kiba, he's improved exponentially since he became part of my team. ''

'' i wouldn't be so sure of yourself kurenai-chan, naruto has improved a great deal as well, i'm sure this fight will be no problem for my personal apprentice'' he rubbed in the last part, even if he was the hokage and was supposed to love everyone in his village, he would still take his students side first and foremost.

when they got into the ring kiba started to laugh out loud. '' akamaru, you might as well just sit out, i'll be able to beat him easy, in fact, i'll use academy taijutsu to do it, i won't even break a sweat.'' he laughed. Now, naruto was used to being underestimated, in fact, he used it to his advantage many times, however, this was just getting out of hand.

naruto looked at kiba, an annoyed expression adorning his features,'' you know kiba,'' he said in a steely voice, '' it's usually those who mock their opponents that are the weakest, i too will use academy taijutsu just because you need to be humbled, and i'll be the one to do it.'' he stated, his gaze never wavering. kiba just shrugged it off, thinking of it as ' big talk'. he slid into his taijutsu stance, which naruto noticed had many flaws, which left him wide open. He decided to go for the open spots, ' if he wasn't such a jerk' he thought to himself as he planted his elbow in kiba's ribs, ' i might have let him take the first move, but i have no time for arrogant idiots'.

kiba doubled over. ' what the? i didn't even see him coming!' he thought as he struggled to breath. he was pissed now, ' okay, i'll step it up a notch, family taijutsu!' he thought as he called akamaru. '' looks like it's not going to be as easy as i planned it to be. here boy'' he said as he threw a soldier pill to his companion. The young dogs fur started to change from white to a deep copper red, his fangs and claws grew longer, along with his eyes changing to a deep red color, giving the dog an even more feral look.

naruto smirked and fell back into his academy stance. '' come on, i'm ready for ya'' he taunted. kiba was furious. '' now akamaru! Ninpo: inuzuka taijutsu gatsuuga!'' he yelled as him and his companion started spinning fast enough to cause two small tornado's'' naruto looked at the spiral jutsu headed his way, not moving a muscle. He didn't even look phased by the powerful jutsu headed his way. he dodged the two spinning shinobi and decided to watch how they jutsu worked. After watched them perform in twice he figured out an affective way to rid himself of the problem.

while kiba and akamaru prepared for a third assault, naruto readied his counter. as kiba came at him, naruto did a few hand seals and yelled out, '' doton:great mud wall no jutsu'' and a wall of solid mud formed in front of him, allowing him shelter from the attack for a couple of seconds while he the next part of his counter ready. A few seconds after he put up the wall he took it down and threw two kunai, one at each shinobi.

'' kunai won't do anything against this jutsu!'' kiba yelled out triumphantly, however he failed to notice the fact that he was steadily slowing down. he finally realized when he was almost stopped. '' what the fuck?!''

now it was naruto's turn to smirk. '' well, look what we have here?'' he mocked as he pulled the steel ninja wire given to his sensei. '' the kunai weren't meant to hurt you, only distract you from what was attached to them.'' Kiba attempted to break free, but before he could manage it, naruto appeared behind him with a kunai to his neck, '' had this been a real battle between enemies, your arrogance would have gotten you killed'' hayate smirked as he watched his part time student put his kunai back in it's holster. '' winner, uzumaki naruto'' naruto smiled as he untied kiba and akamaru. '' good fight'' he said to them both. kiba huffed, and akamaru whined, sad because of the loss.

naruto went back up to the balcony to watch the rest of the fight and was immediately congratulated by his friends and team mates. '' you d..id so good na-naruto-kun'' hinata said between stutters. naruto smiled, he really liked hinata, but didn't know if was right for him to ask her out. ' her father would deny it straight away' he thought bitterly to himself, ' but i guess i won't know if i don't try.' he fought with himself for a while until he finally agreed with the latter. ' i'm right, gotta try' he thought as he stood up, ' but not until after the exam.. in private.' he lightly blushed, not that anyone noticed.

'' next fighters sabaku no gaara vs. akimichi chouji, come down to the floor'' hayate yelled.

'' forfeit chouji, you can't beat this guy'' ino said. chouji looked down scared, '' what do you think shikamaru?'' he asked his best friend. '' well, it's troublesome, but, you aren't weak, if you think you can fight, i say go for it.'' chouji nodded and made his way down to the floor.

'' i'm not afraid of you!'' he yelled, more to build his own confidence than to scare his opponent. gaara just stared at him, not moving, betraying no emotion.

'' if you are ready, you may begin'' hayate told the fighters. chouji increased his body size and sucked his arms and legs in, then started yelling '' roll roll roll'' and rolled toward gaara. once again, gaara didn't looked phased, he stood there and when the giant ball of flesh rolled towards him, his sand released itself and stopped him from hitting gaara. after that, he commanded the sand to pick chouji up and throw him across the room into the opposite wall, affectively knocking him unconscious. '' winner, sabaku no gaara''

gaara walked back up to his team mates and waited until the preliminaries were over. '' next match'' hayate called out, '' higurashi ten ten vs. sabaku no temari'' ten ten's weaponry skills had no affect on temari's wind power, and the match was soon over as temari launched ten ten's weapons back at her with her cutting wind.

the next match was hyuuga neji and yamanaka ino, which didn't last long. neji didn't even have to use his jyuuken, basic taijutsu beat ino fairly quickly. shikamaru was paired with the kunoichi from the sound, and using his shadow manipulation was able to knock her out against the wall. the last match was rock lee and dosu of the sound, who lee managed to knock out before dosu had a chance to use his sound power. hayate smiled at the finalists. ''the fighters going to the finals are:

uchiha sasuke

uzumaki naruto

sabaku no gaara

sabaku no temari

nara shikamaru

rock lee.

the pairings for the first round are:

sabaku no temaru vs. nara shikamaru

uchiha sasuke vs. uzumaki naruto

rock lee vs. sabaku no gaara" hayate called out. '' train hard, important people will be coming to see who they want to be chuunin, and remember, just because you don't win your match in the finals, doesn't mean that you won't become a chuunin, if you have most of the qualities needed to be a successful chuunin then you may be promoted anyway.''

the hokage stood up and added his own two cents. '' good luck, and make konoha proud'' then he sat back down. the students all left to meet their jounin instructors and set up their training regiment.

naruto continued his current training system, along with perfecting the hirashin and rasengan. he threw the three pronged kunai a good 50 yards way from himself, and another, then another, and so on until he had thrown over 15 and made his way around the spiral he had created for his training. sometimes he would as jiraya to throw them farther ahead of himself so he could practice better.

the four weeks flew, and in no time, it was finals day, the day that everyone has been waiting for.


	10. another authors note a good one!

Sorry sorry! i've neglected this story for too long.. and as of now I've decided.. I will continue this story! Tomorow, may, 12, 2009,the next chapter of what if will be up, I promise!


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